Wizball

Wizball is a shooter/platformer with horizontal scrolling created by Sensible Software for the Commodore 64 in 1987. The game was designed by Jon Hare, whose name is tied to the Sensible Soccer series, and his co-founder Chris Yates.

The two not only created the game but also collaborated with the composer for the music. The success of the game made possible the porting to other platforms, including ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, and Atari ST (in 1988).

Wizball was very innovative and original. You are a bouncing ball, which is able to shoot, and you have to complete all the levels that start off as monochromatic, coloring them. To do that you have to shoot and collect the required power-ups so that your ball can be upgraded and becomes able to defeat the enemies. The upgrading system is similar to Gradius and Nemesis, collecting bubbles and then selecting the upgrade moving the joystick left or right.

A great control system, non linearity and a state-of-the-art graphics and sound made this "easy to play, difficult to master" game one of the best videogames ever created for the Commodore 64. Wizball is also one of the few cases where the 8 bit version is better than the 16bit one. Jon Hare and Chris Yates did not create the Atari ST and Amiga versions in fact. The porting was curated by another developer which didn't really make use of the superior capabilities of the platforms. The gameplay was also changed, the enemies come one wave at a time, while in the original version there were multiple waves.

Despite this, the reviews of the Amiga and ST versions were not negative. But the C64 version is recognized as superior. Of course, GamesNostalgia is offering you the Commodore 64 version. Remember to activate the Warp mode and keep it active until the game starts.